How to Calm Carter

Everyone knows it can be hard to calm a fussy baby. Some people buy expensive sound machines or play white noise CDs to soothe thier babies. Luckly, we already have a sound machine living here full time. It may not be as cute as a lullaby or the Michelob song (thanks Dad Steele), but it sure is effective.

It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

When Dr. Frederick von Swingheimer invented the first swing in 1745, he was clearly on to something. When someone decided to make a swing for babies: pure genius. As new parents people have already given us a few "I can't believe the things they have now ...". We shouldn't kid ourselves though, if there had been swings like this, they would have been used.

It is safe to say that Carter has spent significantly more time in his swing than in the hand built crib his father made; and that's OK. Just look at how content he is to sit there and rock back and forth (even with the wrecking crew in the kitchen). Add the mobile and water sounds and he is out like a little light. We are so grateful to Dr. Tom and Kelly for getting this to us. If sleep were an activity that we still participated in, we would find a way to get one of these for ourselves.

It Snowed!!!!!!!

Believe it or not (we aren't sure we do yet) it snowed here in Alabama. Yesterday we got about an inch of snow. The weather people were saying it was the most significant snow in about 35 years. Just like back home, they were also way off on the amounts; they projected 3-6 inches.
What was different was the behavior of the weather casters. 24 hours prior to the storm, they issued a heavy snow warning, which stayed in effect even after they started predicting only an inch. During the storm, the news casters were begging people to please stay in their homes and stay off the roads. They wanted everyone to just hunker down and ride it out. It was laughable for sure.
It did provide a little interest to what should have been Carter's actual due date. To see more photos and some video of Carter seeing the snow, click the link below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cooperandemily/SnowInAlabama?authkey=ulihjjQM4DM

Welcome Carter!

It seemed to be a good idea that the first post on this blog be about the main reason for it: the birth of our son Carter. Carter Anthony Steele was born on 28 December 2007 at 11:32am. He weighed 6lbs 7oz and was 19.25 inches long. He was in a hurry to get here and tried to come almost 5 weeks before his Jan 19 due date. Emily stayed in the hospital for a week while the doctors and nurses worked hard to stop the contractions and keep the baby cooking a little longer.
We were able to go home for Christmas, but on the 27th, the doctor sent us back to the hospital with the idea that he was going to induce Emily on the day she reached the 37 week mark. The doctor got things moving around 10:00 and predicted we would have our baby by 11:27. He was off by only 5 minutes!
Carter was very healthy and scored a 10 on the Apgar despite being born a little early. The labor was perfect and Emily came through with flying colors. 48 hours later, we were home and ready to start never sleeping again.

To see more photos of Carter's arrival, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cooperandemily/CarterSArrival?authkey=FZ6YhZilLKo